"U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation into the origins of the FBI's 2016 Russia probe has expanded based on new evidence uncovered during a recent trip to Rome with Attorney General Bill Barr, sources told Fox News on Tuesday.

"The sources said Durham was 'very interested' to question former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director John Brennan, an anti-Trump critic who recently dismissed the idea.

"The two Obama administration officials were at the helm when the unverified and largely discredited Steele dossier, written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee, was used to justify a secret surveillance warrant against former Trump adviser Carter Page. ...

"Although Durham, the U.S. attorney from Connecticut, initially was appointed to review the events leading up to the 2016 presidential election and through Trump's January 2017 inauguration, Fox News has reported that he later broadened his investigation to cover a post-election timeline extending through the spring of 2017 -- when Robert Mueller was appointed as special counsel.

"'If the rumors are true that IG Horowitz's report and findings in Durham's review will blast the conduct of the FBI's Russia investigation, it will give Trump a lot of ammo to support his argument that he was unjustly targeted then and is being unjustly targeted now,' a House GOP source told Fox News on Tuesday. 'It will justify Trump's warnings about the Deep State acting to hobble his presidency.'"

"Anonymous efforts by anti-Trump federal bureaucrats to thwart the White House agenda through leaks and complaints to friendly reporters and congressional allies are a 'mortal threat' to democracy and the 2016 election results, according to a top administration official.

"'This is a mortal threat to the American system of government,' said Stephen Miller, the senior adviser for policy.

"In 2016, President Trump ran against Washington's 'deep state' and 'permanent bureaucracy,' said Miller, and they remain so angry that they are lying, leaking, and attacking the administration's agenda. ...

"In an interview, Miller called inside attacks a 'very grave threat,' and he explained it this way:

"'It is best understood as career federal employees that believe they are under no obligation to honor, respect, or abide by the results of a democratic election. Their view is, "If I agree with what voters choose, then I'll do what they choose. If I disagree with what voters choose, then I won't, and I'll continue doing my own thing. So basically it's heads I win, tails you lose."'"

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"A former member of the Ukrainian parliament reportedly says Burisma Holdings hired Hunter Biden for protection.

"Oleksandr Onyshchenko, a businessman who left Ukraine in 2016, said Burisma's founder, Mykola Zlochevsky, sought the assistance of Hunter Biden, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, at a time when the natural gas company was under intense scrutiny for corruption.

"'It was to protect [the company],' Onyshchenko told Reuters on Friday.

"Hunter Biden obtained a seat on the company's board of directors because he was seen as a man with a political clout, influence from his father's role in the Obama administration, according to people interviewed by the news agency. Joe Biden was doling out assistance to Ukraine as then-President Barack Obama's point man in the east European country."

"In case you just woke up from a four day coma, the weekend's news cycle was dominated by an over-the-top intra-Democratic Party dispute between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard. Gabbard, a noted non-interventionist who, like President Trump, isn't fond of the idea of endless, pointless, unwinnable wars across the ocean when there is so much to deal with on our own shores, predictably took issue with Clinton's Friday podcast characterization of her as a 'favorite of the Russians.'

"The Hawaii congresswoman hit back hard, calling Clinton out as the 'queen of warmongers' who has the blood of those killed in Iraq, a 'war she championed,' unequivocally 'on her hands.'

"It was the best story of the weekend, by far, and kept the talking heads busy commenting on the exchange and even speculating on why Hillary would choose Gabbard of all candidates -- someone who, despite being the most photogenic of the bunch by far, hasn't managed to break two percent in the polls -- to pick on in what should have been a pretty mundane podcast appearance. Some opined that the notably vainglorious former first lady merely wants to stay in the spotlight and, given their differences on foreign policy, Gabbard is an easy mark. Others speculated that Clinton may be prepping or testing the waters for her own run. Gabbard herself told Fox News' Tucker Carlson she knows 'exactly why,' because she is 'standing up and speaking out strongly against the Hillary Clinton legacy, the warmongering legacy of waging these regime change wars.'"

"Everyone who already thought the case for President Trump's impeachment was a slam-dunk went berserk Thursday, claiming that acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney had just admitted to a quid pro quo with Ukraine.

"Except that what Mulvaney 'admitted' is that the administration was doing what it should -- pushing a foreign government to cooperate in getting to the bottom of foreign interference in the 2016 campaign.

"Virtually every media outlet in America -- certainly all those that jumped on Mulvaney's remarks -- has spent most of the last three years painting such foreign interference as the blackest possible crime.

"In fact, all Mulvaney did was repeat yet again that Trump 'was worried about corruption with that nation' -- and specifically say those worries extended to cooperation in 'the look-back to what happened in 2016.'"

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"In a secret interview, Rep. Adam Schiff, leader of the House Democratic effort to impeach President Trump, pressed former United States special representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker to testify that Ukrainian officials felt pressured to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter as a result of Trump withholding U.S. military aid to Ukraine.

"Volker denied that was the case, noting that Ukrainian leaders did not even know the aid was being withheld and that they believed their relationship with the U.S. was moving along satisfactorily, without them having done anything Trump mentioned in his notorious July 25 phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

"When Volker repeatedly declined to agree to Schiff's characterization of events, Schiff said, 'Ambassador, you're making this much more complicated than it has to be.' ...

"Much of the coverage of Volker's testimony focused on his opening statement, which made its way to the media. But there was much more to the testimony than the opening statement. Among other things, it showed how Schiff, as a powerful chairman in charge of impeachment, pursues his theory of the case even when a witness gives testimony that does not support it."

"A motion to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., for his 'parody' reading of President Trump's July phone call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky during a hearing last month is gaining steam with House Republicans, as Fox News has learned 135 lawmakers have now signed on as co-sponsors.

"The resolution to censure Schiff -- who has become a favorite target of Republicans for his role in the Trump impeachment inquiry -- was first introduced late last month by Rep. Andy Biggs, the Arizona Republican who chairs the conservative House Freedom Caucus, and has the support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., among other ranking Republicans in the lower chamber of Congress.

"Democrats have the majority and control the floor in the House, but Republicans could still attempt to force a vote on the matter.

"'Schiff simply does not have the gravitas that a weighty procedure such as impeachment requires,' Biggs wrote in an opinion piece for Fox News.'He has repeatedly shown incredibly poor judgment. He has persistently and consistently demonstrated that he has such a tremendous bias and animus against Trump that he will say anything and accept any proffer of even bogus evidence to try to remove the president from office.'"

"House Democrats confident that their push for impeachment is a political slam-dunk might want to figure out how they can reconcile two contradictory facts.

"On the one hand, they say that there is a clear case for impeachment that every voter can understand. On the other, Rep. Adam Schiff, who is leading the charge, is doing everything possible to keep the details surrounding the impeachment charge secret.

"If impeachment is a sure thing, why hasn't there been a vote on it yet?

"If it's so easy to understand, why is Schiff hiding key information about it from the public? ...

"If the case is so 'easy to understand,' then when is the vote? Where are the articles of impeachment? Why is Schiff hiding the ball?

"They won't answer those questions. And the march to impeachment suddenly doesn't look so hot."

"Elizabeth Warren has a moving story about being fired from a teaching job because she was pregnant, a story that perfectly complements her political narrative that she is the tribune and champion of those who have been treated unfairly by the powerful. Joe Biden has a moving -- and horrifying -- story about his wife and daughter being killed by a drunk driver, a story that similarly could not have been designed more perfectly to bolster his political image as a man who can be counted on to soldier on in the face of adversity.

"Of course, neither story is true.

"Are we still caring about that sort of thing?"

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"In a deeply polarized nation, Ellen DeGeneres deserves praise for practicing tolerance toward others and not choosing her friends based on how they vote -- an anomaly these days, especially in far-left Hollywood and the #Resistance movement, whose rabid followers have allowed their political persuasions to extinguish any semblance of civility, open-mindedness and respect for different points of view.

"Luckily for American pop culture, Tinseltown still has a sliver of rational folks within its city limits. In DeGeneres' case, she spread goodwill at a football game in Texas last weekend and did more to unify the country than half the pols in Washington.

"It started with a photograph that went viral of the affable talk show host and former President George W. Bush sitting next to each other at a Dallas Cowboys game, smiling and enjoying each other's company. That should be viewed as positive, but it instead triggered an onslaught of online backlash from the left, so much so that DeGeneres was compelled to address on her hit TV show the Twitter mob who lashed out at her for sitting next to a conservative and being friendly toward him."

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